On 23 September 2012 11:48, Rob Malpass <linux@???> wrote:
> Hi all
>
>
>
> Given my eyesight, I’ve never had to worry too much about smartphones or
> mobile broadband but a monster train journey shortly is about to change all
> of that so I need to know (by Tuesday if poss!) what kit I need.
>
>
>
> I have about 7 hours on a train on Tueday and need web access while doing
> so. Thus far, I only have access to a Toshiba satellite laptop running
> Ubuntu. In theory, I think all I need is [1] a usb dongle from argos or
> somewhere similar and I’m away. But I have several questions:
>
> 1) Will a high street dongle work with Linux?
>
> 2) If so – I don’t want to do any sort of contract – I want to just pay
> £20 for some sort of 1Gb limit and chuck it away post use – do these things
> still exist?
>
> 3) How good are these things really? Say I wanted to catch up on
> something on iplayer in between faffing about with spread sheets for work –
> is this really feasible on a fast moving train?
>
> 4) Said laptop is 2009 vintage and I’ve been thinking of getting a new
> one – is it worthwhile buying a 3G laptop?
>
I have a vodafone 3G dongle and it just works with Linux network
manager. No configuration needed, it just detected it, and set it up.
Even though 3G has a supposed high data rate, it is rather slow in
practice. It is particularly bad on trains because of the cage affect
of the train carriage combined with tunnels. 3G as a standard works
even if the person is moving over 100MPH. (I think the limit is 120MPH
or something like that)
3G is about OK for email,facebook and streaming to small mobile phone
videos, but not a large laptop screen sized video.
I would download all the videos you need before the journey. E.g. Use
get_iplayer.
Try to make sure you have a power supply that is compatible with the
ones on the train, if they exist on the train.
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